Complications.
The Rosie Project.
Ender in Exile.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Dark side.....
I must apologize. I haven't posted in months. In the past I've had the expected ebb and flow of blog posts however these last few months have been utterly and completely overwhelmed with work. I remember writing about being busy running experiments for months on end; those times were crazy however they pale in comparison to what I've experienced lately.
In short I completed the last of my behavioral experiments then spent weeks living in one of the biology labs on campus processing tissue. After that I finished collecting data at Wellington Zoo project. The following day Tim and I flew to the US where he spent a month working in the NMR lab at MSU and I holed up and spent my days writing. It was an incredibly productive time and upon arriving back in NZ I had serious drafts of all my chapters in the works.
Then it happened. Months earlier I had submitted two abstracts for presentations at the Australia and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) conference. One outlined the training program we've developed at Vic and the other my small cats zoo project. After submitting them I heard back straightaway about the ethics training program and was given a presentation slot - great! After that I didn't hear back about the second abstract and assumed that it had not been accepted. The week before we left the US I emailed the conference organizers just to be sure. Apparently, an email had been lost along the way and the second abstract had been accepted but because they couldn't get in touch with me I didn't realize this until less than two weeks before the conference. They were relieved to hear from me but worried that I wouldn't have enough time to prepare. As insanity would have it I assured them that I would make it happen. So the week we arrived back in NZ I spent the majority of my time preparing the two presentations as well as the accompanying papers that the conference requires of the presenters. I was also scrambling to arrange a time to give my presentation of the small cats data to a group at the zoo. Thankfully we were able to squeeze this in - I'm a firm believer in practicing presentations and getting feedback before you give them for real. A veritable whirlwind of activity and unfortunately that left no time for the thesis. Talk about serious guilt. The conference started the following week and I was on a plane to Gold Coast, Australia, before I knew it. Both talks went very well and generated a great deal of discussion throughout the week. After each one I had people lining up to talk to me - I took that as a good sign. :) I'm very glad that I decided to go but as you can imagine it didn't leave much time for thesis writing during that week either. Sigh. More guilt.
After returning to NZ I had just one week until the end of July: my arbitrary deadline for thesis submission. As you might expect that was not going to happen. And it didn't.
Now we're two weeks into August and I am creeping ever closer to submitting this book. It's the first one I've written and currently is numbering 150 pages. Of my five chapters I've finished three of them. The fourth chapter and the General Discussion are both well on their way. So thesis submission will happen sometime in August and I can't tell you how amazing it is to consider this. After all this time, work, blood, sweat and tears - it is actually going to happen! More to come.
In short I completed the last of my behavioral experiments then spent weeks living in one of the biology labs on campus processing tissue. After that I finished collecting data at Wellington Zoo project. The following day Tim and I flew to the US where he spent a month working in the NMR lab at MSU and I holed up and spent my days writing. It was an incredibly productive time and upon arriving back in NZ I had serious drafts of all my chapters in the works.
Then it happened. Months earlier I had submitted two abstracts for presentations at the Australia and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) conference. One outlined the training program we've developed at Vic and the other my small cats zoo project. After submitting them I heard back straightaway about the ethics training program and was given a presentation slot - great! After that I didn't hear back about the second abstract and assumed that it had not been accepted. The week before we left the US I emailed the conference organizers just to be sure. Apparently, an email had been lost along the way and the second abstract had been accepted but because they couldn't get in touch with me I didn't realize this until less than two weeks before the conference. They were relieved to hear from me but worried that I wouldn't have enough time to prepare. As insanity would have it I assured them that I would make it happen. So the week we arrived back in NZ I spent the majority of my time preparing the two presentations as well as the accompanying papers that the conference requires of the presenters. I was also scrambling to arrange a time to give my presentation of the small cats data to a group at the zoo. Thankfully we were able to squeeze this in - I'm a firm believer in practicing presentations and getting feedback before you give them for real. A veritable whirlwind of activity and unfortunately that left no time for the thesis. Talk about serious guilt. The conference started the following week and I was on a plane to Gold Coast, Australia, before I knew it. Both talks went very well and generated a great deal of discussion throughout the week. After each one I had people lining up to talk to me - I took that as a good sign. :) I'm very glad that I decided to go but as you can imagine it didn't leave much time for thesis writing during that week either. Sigh. More guilt.
After returning to NZ I had just one week until the end of July: my arbitrary deadline for thesis submission. As you might expect that was not going to happen. And it didn't.
Now we're two weeks into August and I am creeping ever closer to submitting this book. It's the first one I've written and currently is numbering 150 pages. Of my five chapters I've finished three of them. The fourth chapter and the General Discussion are both well on their way. So thesis submission will happen sometime in August and I can't tell you how amazing it is to consider this. After all this time, work, blood, sweat and tears - it is actually going to happen! More to come.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Book love....
Clash of Kings. After an epic and all consuming run of molecular analysis my PhD lab work has come to an end! And so has this book. Another gigantic tome: just shy of 1000 pages. Now onto Storm of Swords. :)
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Book love.....
To Kill a Mockingbird. Simply brilliant - Harper Lee delivers wit and sarcasm with perfect precision. This one remains my all-time favorite.
Ugly....
Upon returning from my DC trip Tim gifted me a "keep cup" to use when getting coffee on and off campus. He spied this particular one at one of the coffee shops at Victoria, liked to color combination and decided to snap it up for me. Then he gave me the option: I could have this one or I could pick out another one and he'd take the original cup. After persuing the Keep Cup website and trying a wide variety of color combinations I still hadn't found the perfect one. Then we were standing in line to get coffee when I saw an aqua colored cup with a pink band. I knew it was the one and so decided to purchase it. It's a slightly random color combination but one that still works.
One day Tim and I got our coffees in the Keep Cups and met up with Tim's supervisor, Petrik, for lunch. As a group we were talking about the color combinations and how the baristas, without fail, never put the right lid on the corresponding cup resulting in truly hideous color mixtures. I laughed and said, "They look like uglies...." to which Petrik immediately said, "No, no, it's not ugly!". I then went on to explain the reference.
In NZ there exists a sportswear brand called Canterbury; they made their start with rugby jerseys but have since expanded to offer track pants, t-shirts, sweatshirts and even socks. By the 1970s the worldwide demand for rugby jerseys was keeping Canterbury busy. But then they were swimming in left over bits and pieces of fabric - what would they do with them? This is where "the Uglies" were born. Taking random pieces (arms, hems and collars) Canterbury starting putting together what they would market as a "practice" jersey. This simple idea resulted in a complete "uglies" line of clothing that is still sold today. It has become an iconic piece of Kiwi culture.
So does my Keep Cup qualify for "ugly" status? I think yes. :)
One day Tim and I got our coffees in the Keep Cups and met up with Tim's supervisor, Petrik, for lunch. As a group we were talking about the color combinations and how the baristas, without fail, never put the right lid on the corresponding cup resulting in truly hideous color mixtures. I laughed and said, "They look like uglies...." to which Petrik immediately said, "No, no, it's not ugly!". I then went on to explain the reference.
In NZ there exists a sportswear brand called Canterbury; they made their start with rugby jerseys but have since expanded to offer track pants, t-shirts, sweatshirts and even socks. By the 1970s the worldwide demand for rugby jerseys was keeping Canterbury busy. But then they were swimming in left over bits and pieces of fabric - what would they do with them? This is where "the Uglies" were born. Taking random pieces (arms, hems and collars) Canterbury starting putting together what they would market as a "practice" jersey. This simple idea resulted in a complete "uglies" line of clothing that is still sold today. It has become an iconic piece of Kiwi culture.
So does my Keep Cup qualify for "ugly" status? I think yes. :)
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Traditional.....
Last week Tim and I were having lunch with Tim's supervisor, Petrik, and two colleagues from the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences. Petrik made the introductions and after saying, "This is Tim and Bridget" he went on to say, "and they're married". Now we've had all sorts of different reactions when this fact is brought to light. Some people are surprised, for reasons I fail to understand. But the response that came next surprised me. It was: "Well, that's refreshingly traditional!". We all laughed but it got me thinking. Since moving to New Zealand I've noticed that many people are quick to talk about their significant other as their "partner". Additionally, many couples we have met are not married. So I guess it comes as a surprise when a relatively young couple is actually married. Very unhip, but that doesn't bother us. We are happy to be together but we've always felt that way even before we were official. :)
Book love....
Game of Thrones. This book, and its three successors, has been sitting on the shelf since we returned from the US over two years ago. Fail. Now I'm jumping in and it's no surprise this was, in itself, a tour de force. Now onto the next epic tome.
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